WITH POLL: Gov. Baker says gender irrelevant as criteria to serve in military

Thursday

Jul 27, 2017 at 7:16 PMJul 27, 2017 at 8:04 PM

By Matt Murphy /STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

Anyone fit to serve in the military should be allowed, regardless of their gender identity, Republican Gov. Charlie Baker said Thursday, a day after President Donald Trump declared that transgender people would no longer be allowed to wear the uniform.

When asked whether he believed as commander in chief of the Massachusetts National Guard that transgender people should be allowed to serve, Baker said there are many tests military members must pass, but gender identity should not be one.

"There are intellectual tests, there are physical tests, there are dexterity tests. I mean there are a lot of things you got to be able to do to serve in the military in this country, and my view is anybody who wants to do that and can pass those tests should be allowed to serve. They shouldn't be discriminated against, period," Baker said.

What do you think of President Trump's tweet regarding the ban of transgender individuals serving in the military? Vote in our poll.

With members of Congress battling over whether the government should be required to pay for medical procedures and treatments of transgender soldiers, Trump, in a series of Tweets on Wednesday, announced the reversal of a year-old Obama administration policy that had allowed transgender men and women to serve openly in the military.

The details of how the new policy will be implemented are still being worked out, the White House said, and military leaders have said that nothing will change until that happens, according to reports.

"Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming ... victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail," Trump Tweeted.

Baker said anyone willing to serve the country in the military should be honored for that sacrifice.

"This kind of public service that we do is important, but it pales in comparison to the public service of the men and women who put on a uniform and voluntarily potentially put themselves in harms way. My view is there's no higher standard we can set with respect to patriotism than that one," Baker said.

Last year, Baker signed a anti-discrimination law aimed at protecting transgender people's access to public accommodations after waiting and watching for months as the Legislature worked to pass the proposal. He has also expressed disappointment with the Trump administration's decision to withdraw another Obama administration directive for schools to treat students in accordance with their gender identity as opposed to their sex assigned at birth.

Earlier in the day, Attorney General Maura Healey, the state's first openly gay attorney general, said she was weighing legal action against the Trump administration for the transgender military ban, but would first wait to see how the policy is implemented.